Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The latest cycling innovations of 2012

The
increasing popularity of cycling among people is prompting suppliers to make
them even more user friendly and safe. Among the many things, most cyclists are
acquainted with bike lights,
helmets, gear bikes, and more, but the year 2012 in particular came up with
some of the most interesting cycling innovations that will not only increase
the pleasure of riding, but make it more fun as well as safe.

Innovative Bike Lights

For
one we all know there are plenty of LED front and tail lights
available in the market, but taking this one step further, companies like
Revolights has made unique lights for night riding. The company is out with
their bike wheel lights, which consist of hoop like lights made of 8 LEDs that
fit onto the exiting wheel rim powered by lithium ion battery. Apart from this,
there are the no-dynamo lights powered by wheel motion, or the automatic lights
that sprout up on their own when it’s dark outside.

Wireless electronic gear
shifting system

Simple
electronic gear shifting systems did create a buzz a little time ago, but now
it’s time for the next big thing. An Italian firm Tiso recently announced the
gear system in which the bar mounted shifters will communicate with the down
tube unit wirelessly. Not launched commercially, the product is likely to be
more cost effective when compared with the electric counterparts.

Shock absorbing cycle
seats

Bumpy
roads giving you a tough ride on your bicycle? This can now be dealt with
special shock absorbing seats for bicycles. A variant manufactured by BioFloat
embodies a mechanism wherein the rail clamp of the seat is cradled in a pair of
flexible elastometer inserts that help in separating the seat from the rest of
the cycle. It absorbs quite a lot of those clumsy bumps along the road, keeping
you in greater comfort.

Cloud integrated bike
tracking system

With
bikes becoming smarter, thieves too are upgrading themselves with technology to
outrun all sort of locking systems you install. But, now there are tracking
systems that are installed GPS. The GPS gets activated as soon as there are
vibrations in the bike and detect all its movement. Information about the movements of the bike
is updated in the cloud every 20 sec, so you’ll know the exact location of the
bike and track it back easily. SpyBike is one of the pioneers of this
technology.

A floor pump that doubles
as a seat post

Companies
like BioLogic recently launched their floor pump that doubles as a seat.
Ordinarily, hand pumps are easier to use and carry around, and floor pumps fill
air in the tires more rapidly, but BioLogic has come with a solution that
combines both these utilities. The PostPump 2.0 serves both as part of the bike
and can be used as a seat and for pumping up air in tires.

Torch Helmet

Getting
front and tail lights installed is not a bad idea for night bikers, but it’s
much easier to have a helmet with lights that can be easily worn over the face.
The Torch 1 helmet is one such helmet that features a white LED light in
the front and a red one in the back. The lights work both in flash and steady
mode. They don’t really light the path ahead of you, but are certainly bright
enough to get noticed by others on the road.